Hey guys! Tried diffusing my hair today for the very first time with my brand new Conair Inifiniti Pro which has the HUGE diffuser I was looking for.

First thoughts. . . huh, not sure what I'm doing wrong but my hair is two toned right now. What I mean is the right side is 2C on top and 3A underneath and the left side is 3A on top and 3B underneath. Here's the weird thing though: It is usually the other way around. Honestly my left side is the lazy side in which I have to squish in more product and the right side is the one that is so curly I have to break up the clumps to make them match. Could it be that because I'm right handed it was easier to diffuse the left side of my head but because I'm not ambidextrous I botched the right side of my head using my left hand to manipulate? Seems like a stretch when all you're doing is holding a blowdryer to your head but still.

So I did the pixie curl method all the way around with my head upside down and then tilted to the side. Three rounds all over my head in which I cupped as many curls as I could, brought the diffuser to the scalp, flipped the switch on and kept hitting the cool button for a 15-20 second stretch. The settings were already on cool and low. I stopped once my hair was 80% dry because I noticed I was getting a dollop of frizz on the crown. When I air dry I have no frizz. Not exaggerating. None. So I feared overdoing it. So it should be dry in under an hour. We'll see how it turns out. I think I'll have to either scrunch in some FSG on the right side to make it clump more or finger comb the curls on the left to break up the clumps and make the hair there 2C.

Anyways, if anybody has any tips or hair routines involving diffusing that really works for them please let me know! I'd really love to get the hang of this.

P.S. First impressions on the blowdryer is that I love it. It's much lighter than my last one and the diffuser is 4x the size so I can actually use it. Did I mention it's a sexy orange color and it was only $25 on the Target website? (I get free shipping with my redcard.)

if you are doing all of the diffusing upside down, you might not be able to see in the mirror and do random sections may be- if that makes any sense. eventhough you saw frizz, I am sure you got great volume again a tradeoff!! I wish it was just easier get both definition and volume and no frizz.lol

If you want you can try starting on diffusing straight up for about 20% diffusing by section then do upside down diffusing, I have seen difference when I would do this way, volume on top without giving it to frizz

Update: well it dried more evenly than it looked it would but there was still a discernible difference to the trained eye. (By that I mean the obsessive compulsive curl counting eye.) Oh well. It looked decent and I had no qualms about wearing it out.

What I did was I started out tilting my head to the left and drying it that way, then tilting my head to the right. (Is that what you meant, Claudine?) For that I could see myself in the mirror. In case you're wondering I looked a weird mix of bored and anxious. Then I remembered I'm supposed to be doing what HouseofCurls does so I tossed my head down and went to town that way. The idea there was more volume. I wanted big sexy hair but a controlled big since the big I get naturally is not so sexy. However, I was surprised to not see a very significant difference in volume. Then again, my hair is thick so it has a lot of volume just by default even when I let it airdry. Maybe if I'd diffused it dry all the way. . . Next time. I was very tepid this time. Only holding the diffuser up for like 15 seconds each section. How long do you hold yours then? Oh, actually the frizz wasn't so bad. I just smoothed it down with some curl & style milk later. And then my hair smelled nice so. . .

I've actually got some shorter layers that I'm anxiously waiting to grow out. They add a really nice shape and my hair curls more uniformly since getting them but they're hard to distribute product on evenly. Oftentimes I won't be able to tell until my hair is completely dry whether or not I missed the mark or not. I've just got so much hair.

Nevertheless, I plan to master this diffusing thing. Keep the tips coming if you have them.

Do you have a longer mirror somewhere else in your house? I end up diffusing my hair in front of a floor-length mirror I have outside my bathroom. That way I can see myself when I'm diffusing upside down.

Our porosity/drying times are different, but I usually leave the sections in the diffuser for about 45 seconds at a time. I start out on my dryer's warm setting, and after my hair starts to get dry and I can feel the warmth all the way up to my scalp, I start holding the cool blast or switching to the no heat setting. I'm not super precise about the timing aspect, I've kind of learned to do it by feel now.

Also, I find finishing by holding the dryer a few inches above my head, pointing down (as in, no hair in the diffuser, just blowing air down at my head) using the cool setting calms down a lot of the little frizzies.

Yup! My bedroom. Okay I'm going to try and see my hair when I'm diffusing upside down then. Do you just turn your body to the side so you can peek?

So this blowdryer I bought I noticed gets warm right away. I mean instantly. So when I cupped the curls and brought the diffuser to the head I felt the warmth there on the scalp right away. (This is on the cool setting already.) So I hit the cool button immediatey and several times throughout each drying session. I'm a little paranoid about drying my hair out but I have to admit I love that my hair was next to dry in less than ten minutes. That was wonderful. Having a blow dryer is so convenient.

How often does everybody diffuse, I wonder? Does it dry your hair out at all or am I worrying for no reason?

I liked your description of your expression, dusa. I tend to daydream or play the "I'm going to sit on you game" with one of my dogs while I diffuse. It's boring.

Yes, I alternate sides and tilt my head. I don't dry everything all the way because I seem to lose body that way. And I try to remember to dry the back, too, but I sometimes forget.

One thing more is that I found I had an excessively hot dryer, and that it was melting the cheap bowl diffusers very quickly. (I've yet to find a high quality bowl diffuser, but I'm very much open to suggestions.) So keep yours on low or cool, if you can. Perhaps low/warm in the colder months and cool in the summer. If you feel like you're scalding your ear, it's too hot.

Yup! My bedroom. Okay I'm going to try and see my hair when I'm diffusing upside down then. Do you just turn your body to the side so you can peek?

So this blowdryer I bought I noticed gets warm right away. I mean instantly. So when I cupped the curls and brought the diffuser to the head I felt the warmth there on the scalp right away. (This is on the cool setting already.) So I hit the cool button immediatey and several times throughout each drying session. I'm a little paranoid about drying my hair out but I have to admit I love that my hair was next to dry in less than ten minutes. That was wonderful. Having a blow dryer is so convenient.

How often does everybody diffuse, I wonder? Does it dry your hair out at all or am I worrying for no reason?

Originally Posted by dusalocks

Yes, exactly! I kind of end up standing with my hips perpendicular to the plane of the mirror. If I turn my head slightly, I can see myself. It was more important to see myself at first, but I find I rarely look in the mirror anymore and do it mostly by feel.

I diffuse almost every morning. My hair is does not handle being slept on well (it's so short right now ) and since I work in a corporate environment, I can't go to work with wet hair. My dryer has three heat settings: no heat, warm, and hot. No heat is the same as the "cool blast" button, but you don't have to hold the botton. It takes me about 25 minutes to get my hair 75% dry. I spend about half the time using the warm setting, and the other half using the no heat setting. I don't think it dries my hair out, but it's hard to tell since I have to do it every day. (I'm hoping that when my hair gets longer, I can work on getting 2nd day hair). I think, since you're used to what your hair should feel like when moisturized/healthy, you should be able to tell pretty quickly if it's drying out.

I diffuse everything I wash.... Every 3 to 5 days... I have a pretty big mirror in my bathroom so I just use that...
I put leave in and mousse in my hair and some argan oil on the ends.
First I flip my hair upside down and dry in sections on low heat for about 30 seconds per section. then I do it over again. I then stand upright and flip all of my hair over to the right side of my head and dry each section for about 30 seconds. Then flip it all over to the left and do the same. Then upside down once more for about 15 - 20 seconds per section.... Then go over it all with the cool blast to set it.
I put no product in my hair when I'm done diffusing, but most times I will clip my roots up with hair clips when I'm done to get a bit more volume on top. I'll leave the clips in for anywhere from 5 minutes to an hour depending on how much of a rush I'm in.
Sometimes as soon as I'm done I will see a bit of frizz on top but it normally settles down after a half hour or so.
Hope this helps!

Sent from my SGH-T989D using CurlTalk App

My hair: 2c, normal porosity, high density, I think I am between normal and coarse.

Thanks for the help ladies. Bellacoco, your hair looks very healthy for someone who diffuses so often. I think I'll try smoothing some extra oil on my ends to protect them. Also I'm going to try 30 seconds per section.

flippacious, which blowdryer do you have and how cool is it? It would be awesome if my blowdryer had a no heat option. Right now it's just "cool" and "warm" I think. So I kept it on cool. It wasn't singing my scalp or my ear, but it was warm right away. Made me a little worried about leaving it there for any length of time. When oh when will they invent a blow dryer that actually does blow out cool and only cool air? Well, my hair has the tendency to get dry on me already even with my babying it so I'll keep on the lookout. I add extra leave in every morning anyways to protect it. I think I'll know for sure when my hair gets wet whether or not it's taken a beating.

Thanks for the help ladies. Bellacoco, your hair looks very healthy for someone who diffuses so often. I think I'll try smoothing some extra oil on my ends to protect them. Also I'm going to try 30 seconds per section.

flippacious, which blowdryer do you have and how cool is it? It would be awesome if my blowdryer had a no heat option. Right now it's just "cool" and "warm" I think. So I kept it on cool. It wasn't singing my scalp or my ear, but it was warm right away. Made me a little worried about leaving it there for any length of time. When oh when will they invent a blow dryer that actually does blow out cool and only cool air? Well, my hair has the tendency to get dry on me already even with my babying it so I'll keep on the lookout. I add extra leave in every morning anyways to protect it. I think I'll know for sure when my hair gets wet whether or not it's taken a beating.

Originally Posted by dusalocks

I have the Solia 1875W dryer. It's decent. I am happy with it, but I don't find it amazing or anything and would consider trying I different blow dryer once it dies. It has three heat settings (off, warm, hot) and technically three airflow settings (off, low, high). So if you just turn on the airflow to low, and leave the heat settings to off, it blows out cold, unheated air. I love that feature.

I don't find the warm setting to be too warm. It definitely feels warm to the touch, but it takes a while for me to feel the warmth all the way up to my scalp (generally until my roots are drying). My hair takes forever to dry, though, and tends to hold onto water for a while. So, this could partially be due to porosity and density rather than my dryer in particular.

That's right. I remember checking out this blowdryer per your recommendation but I was more preoccupied at the time about the diffuser and whether or not it would come with and how big it would be. . . (The diffuser on my vintage blowdryer that I couldn't use was roughly the circumference of the bottom of my coffee cup, if you can imagine.) Well the Solia is only $90 on amazon so I'm bookmarking it for whether I decide to trade up. It is honestly only cool air? That's pretty incredible. My hair dries very fast even with products like KCCC so I don't even need the warm of hot settings on my blowdryer. There is this one big spot on the back of my head though that dries slower than everywhere else and I'm wondering if it's low porosity or whether it's just that I've just got so much hair back there. Very strange.

I diffuse everytime I wash which is about every 3 days. This is how I diffuse and it works for me. Except I don't twist my hair all the way around my head, sometimes just the clumps near my face. I also don't need to use the hairdryer to "calm my hair down" post diffuse. I just use my fingers to arrange the out of place curls. Then I'm done with my hair.

This series has other videos on curly hair, but I can't attest to them as I do not do them. I just diffuse this way.